A variety of medical procedures are performed to treat various female pelvic dysfunctions, including procedures to treat urinary incontinence, and correcting various prolapse conditions such as uterine prolapse, cystoceles, rectoceles, and vaginal vault prolapse.
Women often experience vaginal prolapses due to age or other factors. For example, women may experience a cystocele, a rectocele and/or a hysterocele. A hysterocele occurs when the uterus descends into the vagina, and a rectocele occurs when the rectum bulges into the vagina. Treatments of such dysfunctions have included suturing procedures or the use of implants for support or suspension.
A hysterocele is often treated with a hysterectomy followed by a vaginal vault suspension. Various known devices and procedures are used to deliver and secure pelvic implants within a variety of different anatomical structures within a pelvic region to perform the vaginal vault suspension. Existing implants differ in many ways including size, shape, material, number and location of straps, and in the method in which they are delivered and placed within a pelvic region.
Complications and difficulties may occur during known vaginal vault procedures. Additionally, some known implants may not provide adequate support to the pelvic region. Thus, it would be desirable to provide improved pelvic implants and methods for performing vaginal vault suspension procedures.